Hun Sen Releases Fishing Lots Ahead of Local Elections [-Another CPP election trick?]

Hun Sen criticized commercial fishing operators saying that they have “abused” local residents by preventing them from fishing for their own consumption.

Tuesday, 28 February 2012

Kong Sothanarith, VOA Khmer | Phnom Penh

“I would like to declare to all the people that there will no longer be any fishing lots in the Tonle Sap Lake. They will all be eliminated.” [KI-Media Note: The fishing lots was maintained by the CPP until now, were they not?]

Prime Minister Hun Sen declared Tuesday the elimination of commercial fishing lots in the Tonle Sap Lake and put it under preservation. However, the opposition party said it was merely a political ploy used to attract voters ahead of local elections in June.

“I would like to declare to all the people that there will no longer be any fishing lots in the Tonle Sap Lake,” Hun Sen said at a graduation ceremony in Phnom Penh. “They will all be eliminated.”

Hun Sen criticized commercial fishing operators saying that they have “abused” local residents by preventing them from fishing for their own consumption.

The large body of freshwater is located in central Cambodia and is one of the signature natural features of the country, providing a diet rich in fish for generations of Cambodians.

Fishermen lose their water, farmers lose their lands, is there anything left in Cambodia ... besides Samdach Dek Cho Hun Sen and his CPP?

Fisherman Gather Outside Gov't Building to Protest Loss of Waters

By Suon Kanika, VOA Khmer
Original report from Kampong Thom
08 November 2007

More than 80 representatives of a fishing village in Kampong Thom province gathered outside the National Assembly in Phnom Penh Thursday to protest the alleged sale of their fishing lots to other interests.

The fishermen said a Cambodian People's Party commune chief in Stung district, Tri Horn, sold their fishing concession.

"In this village, it is not only I who tremendously suffered from the sale of the fishing lot, but also hundred of families," said Horn Say, a Prakeab village fisherman. "Please [Prime Minister] Hun Sen, please help your people. We're not allowed to fish, and if we do, they just take our nets. Now our 11 fishing nets have been confiscated. We cannot even feed our cattle with the water in the lot. We cannot even use the water to irrigate our rice paddy."

The accused commune chief, Tri Horn, told VOA Khmer the villagers had voted to exchange fishing lots for the construction of a road, and he had followed their wishes.